I ordered a solenoid kit a few weeks ago, but never had a chance to install it. A couple of days ago I started having issues with 4 to 5 shifting under hard acceleration (once it even gave the transmission warning message and locked me into one gear. turning car off/back on got me going again at least), so I figured it was time to put these in.

Is there a DIY for how to do this? If not, I'll try to write one up if anyone wants or needs it. Please let me know if anyone wants this.. It's pretty easy. Just pull the mechatronics/valve body. Take mechatronics (plastic + electronics) off of valve body, remove solenoids, install new solenoids and put it all back together.

One thing that really freaked me out was I got it all apart and the old solenoids were green, new ones were blue. I just about put the old ones back in, but realized when I blew on some of them they were leaking pretty bad, so I figured I'd try the blue and see what happens. About the time I got it back together thectsc wrote me back and said it was just a color change, but what I had would work fine.

So, the verdict: With new solenoids, this is the best shifting I've seen out of this car so far. Shifts are quick and firm, but not jerky at all. Much better than before. Going into reverse is almost instant now, where it used to take 2-3 seconds before it would engage. I reset all of the adapatations so I've had a few little jerks here and there during downshifts, but you can tell it's changing fine, just sometimes the computer is changing down a little too early. Hopefully it learns how to be smoother about it.

I can also be hard on the gas and no problems with the 4 to 5 shift or any others for that matter

If I drove it hard I used to get some codes about output speed not being correct or something like that, which I assume was either from slow shifting or slipping clutch packs. Regardless, I drove it hard earlier and got no error messages at all.

I would suggest anyone about to replace their whole valvebody/mechatronics who has the classic symptoms consider just replacing the solenoids, if you are so inclined.